Lifeguards

Distracted Lifeguards Cited in Aquatic Incidents

Cellphone and headphone use called into question.

Distracted lifeguards were cited in at least two aquatic incidents. According to witness testimony in an inquest into the drowning death of a 10-year-old in Ireland, lifeguard Bobby Ledden was using his cell phone when the incident occurred. In the U.K., jurors fined one lifeguard 200 pounds for talking to friends while on duty when an aquatic death occured. Stateside, the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation suspended a beach lifeguard last summer after a photo of the guard wearing head phones while on duty ran in The New York Post one day after a drowning occurred on a different stretch of beach.